It’s Aaron Rodgers vs. ESPN round two and the New York Jets quarterback is punching back by demanding to know Ryan Clark’s vaccine status.
Rodgers made waves last week on The Pat McAfee Show when he ripped ESPN for transforming into a bounty of “unfounded or asinine” takes. Ironically, Rodgers dropped this take while he was on ESPN, via McAfee’s show, which compensates the quarterback for his tendency to give headline-worthy opinions, even if many of them are unfounded or asinine.
Naturally, some at ESPN took issue with Rodgers’ rant last, Ryan Clark being among them. Clark responded to Rodgers on First Take by calling out the hypocrisy of Rodgers taking issue with personality-driven content from former professional athletes, while on a personality-driven show hosted by a former professional athlete. Rodgers clearly heard Clark call him a “fraud,” prompting a bizarre response Tuesday afternoon on The Pat McAfee Show.
“I just got a PSA..
Just a quick reminder” 😂😂 ~ @AaronRodgers12 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/6dI6X86Hwp
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 17, 2024
“Say whatever the f*** you want about me, I don’t care,” Rodgers began. “But just before you do it, whether you state your name, your accolades, pronouns, whatever it is, just state your vax status so that anything you say afterwards gets put in the right light. Just get it out there. Cause then when you say things about me, people can at least be like, ‘Oh, you are captured by the multimillion-dollar propaganda Skyhawk and you’re still upset about it.’ Just put that out there just so everybody knows where you’re coming from. Everybody knows, ‘Okay, cool, you’re twice vaxxed Moderna with three booster shots’ and then say what you want to say, whatever.
“I don’t care. I’m just saying a PSA, just please help everybody out who’s wondering, ‘Where is this coming from?’ Including myself, where the f*** is this coming from? But just give a little PSA. Do a little bit of digging and then you know where it’s all coming from. Right? You’re captured, you’re highly vaccinated and then say whatever the hell you want to say about me cause I couldn’t give two s***s about it.”
Clearly, Rodgers doesn’t care about what anyone says about him. That’s why he takes the time to respond to every criticism and media narrative about him with such vitriol.
“Instead of your accolades that you need to have out there so desperately, just put your vax status as well,” Rodgers continued. “Because you cared so much about it during the COVID years. So just put it out there on your bio on your shows or whatever, you don’t just need a broach with your initials. Put your vax status on there too.”
We’re almost five years removed from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re more than three years removed from Rodgers attempting to circumvent a question about his vaccine status. Yet here he is, still attempting to boil everything back down to COVID vaccines.
At this point, Rodgers sounds like the miserable middle-aged person who is doing everything they can to hang on to their high school football days.
It makes sense. Rodgers was an NFL MVP when COVID vaccine debates and discussions still dominated the news cycle. Now he’s the quarterback of a 4-10 team, staring at the end of his Hall-of-Fame career while desperately clinging to those days where he was the toast of the league.
Shortly after McAfee posted the clip, Clark responded by noting he wears a lapel pin with his initials, not a broach. Clark said he also reached out to McAfee with his number offering to set the record straight with a quick conversation. Hopefully, that happens on-air. But earlier this year, Clark attempted to settle a dispute with WFAN’s Gregg Giannotti and Tiki Barber by proposing a closed-door, off-air conversation, which doesn’t make for great content.
Man, I wish @PatMcAfeeShow would’ve let him keep going! It just got good. I don’t know about the Vax stuff, but shoot he almost put a name on it. It’s a lapel pin BTW!! 😂😂😂😂 https://t.co/FjuhJrAZq4
— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) December 17, 2024
“What I said struck a nerve, obviously,” Rodgers continued. “My whole point in saying that was, most of you, nobody remembers your career. Nobody remembers it. Guess what, in five or ten years you’re not going to remember my career either. So what…In five or ten years when people forget about my career, I’m not gonna need to find some sort of relevance to be on TV.”
Maybe Rodgers will go quietly and won’t chase relevancy when he retires. Maybe he’ll avoid the media and podcast interviews and Netflix documentaries and teasing a run for political office when he retires. But if he did all of that while playing in the NFL, how’s he going to cope with filling the void of not playing in the NFL?
